re: china gives u.s. another middle finger
And again over North Korea.
China rebuffs U.S. over N. Korea Monday, February 24, 2003 Posted: 6:54 PM EST (2354 GMT)
BEIJING, China -- U.S. efforts to form a regional coalition to pressure North Korea over its suspected nuclear weapons program are faltering, with China the latest nation to reject the proposal.
U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell met Monday with Chinese President Jiang Zemin and other senior officials to discuss the pressing issues of North Korea, Iraq and Taiwan.
After the meetings, China's official Xinhua news agency quoted Foreign Minister Tang Jiaxuan as saying that China hoped that the United States and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) would begin direct talks on an equal footing.
Those sentiments have also been expressed by key U.S. regional allies South Korea and Australia. (Allies urge U.S. to talk)
Pyongyang has been demanding bilateral talks with the U.S. over its revived nuclear program, a position Washington has been reluctant to accept.
Powell has now flown to Seoul, South Korea for the inauguration of President-elect Roh Moo-hyun.
At a news conference Monday, Powell said the North Korean weapons issue "is a matter for China, it's a matter for South Korea, it's a matter for Japan, it's a matter for Russia, and it's a matter for the United Nations."
He also said that China had indicated that it was anxious to play a helpful role in resolving the North Korea situation.
China says it favors a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula, but U.S. officials complain that Beijing has done little to achieve that objective.
Powell has said that China is uniquely positioned to influence North Korea because it is by far Pyongyang's largest aid donor.
Pyongyang denies it has a nuclear weapons program, saying it was forced to pull out of the 1994 Agreed Framework because the United States stopped fuel shipments.
The reclusive Stalinist state wants to eventually negotiate a non-aggression pact with the United States, which it fears will attack the North. The U.S. says it has no such plans and wishes to deal with the issue through diplomatic channels.
U.S. President George W. Bush has labelled North Korea a member of an "axis of evil," along with Iraq and Iran.
